Week 14: Replace your bad habits with good ones

“The only proper way to eliminate bad habits is to replace them with good ones.”

~Jerome Hines

You’ve finally taken a stand and kicked that bad habit that’s been holding you back or sending you down a destructive path for so long. The first few hours are euphoric – you’ve made a major change in your life and you can see the brighter future to come rolling out ahead of you like a red carpet. And then…you realize that despite the change you’ve made inside yourself the world continues as it always has. Maybe the habit was a stress-coping mechanism and something’s getting under your skin. Maybe it’s just been such an ingrained habit that the time you’ve always done it has rolled around and you’re at a loss for what to do.

The solution is to replace that bad habit with something else – another activity that will get your mind off the old one and fill the void left vacant by the change you’ve made. This is a proven strategy that is recommended by behavioral experts and has been shown to drastically decrease the chances of relapsing to old behaviors. The replacement activity can be a neutral one that will do no harm – still far better than an actively destructive one – but that can’t be enough if you are truly driven at self-improvement. It’s even better to have the replacement activity be a good habit you have been meaning to take up, and a time of change is psychologically the best time to start on a new, more constructive activity.

Weekly Challenge:

Get rid of your bad habits, and replace them with better, more wholesome ones. Read a constructive book instead of bingeing on TV at the end of the day, replace the bag of potato chips with some carrot sticks, do some quick pushups instead of going out for a smoke. Not only will you reduce the chances of going back to your old ways, you’ll also be encouraged by the improvement you will see in your life .

Recommended reading: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhig g

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Ultimately, everything we do is for the benefit of our emotions – love, peace, contentment, excitement; these are what we are truly seeking when we strive for anything, just as we try to avoid their opposites. It's good, then, that we have a great deal of direct control over these internals. Not only can you achieve them without having to rely on what is outside your grasp, they can initiate a reverse effect, your inner positivity making the road to external success much easier.